Page:Norse mythology or, the religion of our forefathers, containing all the myths of the Eddas, systematized and interpreted with an introduction, vocabulary and index.djvu/346

 Stand up, Vidar! And let the wolf's father Be guest at the feast, That Loke may not Bring reproach on us Here in Æger's hall.

His realm is thus described in the Elder Edda:

Grown over with shrubs And with high grass Is Vidar's wide land. There sits Odin's Son on the horse's back: He will avenge his father.

He avenges his father in the final catastrophe, in Ragnarok; for when the Fenris-wolf has swallowed Odin, Vidar advances, and setting his foot on the monster's lower jaw he seizes the other with his hand, and thus tears and rends him till he dies. It is now his shoe does him such excellent service. After the universe has been regenerated

There dwell Vidar and Vale In the gods' holy seats, When the fire of Surt is slaked.

Vidar's name (from viðr, a forest) indicates that he is the god of the primeval, impenetrable forest, where neither the sound of the ax nor the voice of man was ever heard; and hence he is also most fittingly surnamed the Silent God. Vidar is, then, imperishable and incorruptible nature represented as an immense indestructible forest, with the iron trunks of the trees rearing their dense and lofty tops toward the clouds. Who has ever entered a thick and pathless forest, wandered about in its huge shadows and lost himself in its